Revolutionary Love
Every year in January we mark Vision Month and we connect w/ God’s plan for world, ourselves and this church. We are entering another year where we anticipate that the world might be even tougher than the year before. We cannot control the external but we can have a vision for how we move in the midst of it. We spent a good chunk of last year looking at Jesus’ call to love and we will do it again this year - but this year my challenge to us all is to get a little more concrete.
Exegesis –
- When we are at a loss of how to move, it always helps to look at Jesus as our blueprint
- I keep coming back to the time before he went to the cross because it sees Jesus dealing with the greatest stress of his life and helps us know how to do the same
- In this scene we see Jesus preparing for his death and him laying out this commandment one last time - my central lesson is love. It’s not like he hasn’t said it before but he makes it clear one last time putting a point on it so that they are clear.
- His version of love is revolutionary because it calls us into a love of God, Neighbor and Self that is balanced and one doesn’t negate the other. It calls for a revolution that turns everything upside down
Jesus’ Vision
1. Put the most powerful person in a subservient position
2. It serves even the person who is about to do him wrong
3. It calls for a response of passing it on - It is a movement builder.
- This year we will celebrate 250 years since a group of colonies declared themselves to be the United States of America. It was a revolution for its time because it challenged the notion that an earthly king should rule over people. It created forms of equality that were groundbreaking at that time. And it was created by imperfect people with lots of aspiration and loads of contradictions.
- This moment could not come at a better time for this nation, where so many of the questions we were wrestling with then are coming back around right now. Those contradictions are once again moving in plain sight and we need folks to once again rise up as they did during the Revolution, The Civil War and The Civil Rights Movement. We need to be citizens actively leaning into the questions of our day.
- However - as Christians we are clear that our battle is not against flesh and blood. We need to see the bigger spiritual battles that are operating in this season and we need to call for the kind of revolution that Jesus called for more than 2000 years ago
Reflection Questions
1. Where do you feel God leading you to get revolutionary in your love for God? How do you need to reset the way that you live and move so that your mind and your movements are set by God’s vision for the world? Imagine what your year would be like if your love for God got revolutionary?
2. Imagine a revolutionary shift in how you love yourself this year. How would pay attention to your body what would your rhythms of rest look like, how would you make space for joy?
3. Assuming that you are a spiritually rooted and rested person - how would you show up in the world in 2026? How would you face this moment in a way that aligns with Jesus’ example?